Golden Eagle Attacks Deer in Camera Trap Footage

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A rare death match between a golden eagle and a young deer was
inadvertently captured by a camera trap set up to snap pictures
of Russia's endangered Siberian tigers.

The sika deer (Cervus nippon) was found dead in December
2011 by a researcher tending to the camera trap, which was being
used to monitor the habits and movements of tigers in
Lazovsky State Nature Reserve in Russia's Far East.

Conservationist Linda Kerley, of the Zoological Society of London
(ZSL), recalled that something felt immediately wrong as she
approached the carcass.

"There were no large carnivore tracks in the snow, and it looked
like the deer had been running and then just stopped and died,"
Kerley, who runs the ZSL's camera trap project, said in a
statement. "It was only after we got back to camp that I checked
the images from the camera and pieced everything together. I
couldn't believe what I was seeing."

"I've been assessing deer causes of death in Russia for 18
years," Kerley said in a statement. "This is the first time I've
seen anything like this."

An adult golden eagle can weigh more than 12 lbs. (5.4 kilograms)
and have a wingspan of about 7.5 feet (2.3 meters). Though they
do not regularly prey on deer, the raptors are known for
ambitious attacks on large animals, the researchers said. The
birds, however, have not been known to attack people, despite
what the
"golden eagle" hoax video would have viewers believe.

"The scientific literature is full of references to golden eagle
attacks on different animals from around the world, from things
as small as rabbits — their regular prey — to coyote and deer,
and even one record in 2004 of an eagle taking a brown bear cub,"
Jonathan Slaght, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a
statement. (ZSL and WCS have been partnering on tiger monitoring
in the region.)

"In this case I think Linda just got really lucky and was able to
document a very rare, opportunistic predation event," Slaght
added.

Kerley and Slaght described the strange case in this month's
issue of the Journal of Raptor Research.